Jacques Monod ( ) and his publications in the Annales de l Institut Pasteur.

Transcription

1 Jacques Monod ( ) and his publications in the Annales de l Institut Pasteur. Sandra Legout To cite this version: Sandra Legout. Jacques Monod ( ) and his publications in the Annales de l Institut Pasteur.. Research in Microbiology, Elsevier, 2010, 161 (2), pp < /j.resmic >. <pasteur > HAL Id: pasteur Submitted on 6 Jul 2010 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

2 Jacques Monod ( ) and his publications in the Annales de l Institut Pasteur Sandra Legout Médiathèque Scientifique, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr. Roux, Paris Cedex 15 France Received 23 December 2009; Accepted 12 January 2010 mailto:legout@pasteur.fr

3 Abstract Between 1942 and 1956, Jacques Monod, Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, contributed a number of papers to the Annales de l Institut Pasteur, the ancestor of the journal Research in Microbiology. Circumstances that led him to publish in the Annales are recalled here Keywords: Jacques Monod; Nobel Prize; Annales de l'institut Pasteur; Diauxic growth; Enzymatic adaptation 25

4 Introduction 2010 is the centenary anniversary of the birth of Jacques Monod, who together with François Jacob and André Lwoff received the Nobel Prize in 1965 in recognition of their outstanding contribution to molecular biology. There exists abundant literature concerning the various stages of his life and his scientific achievements (1, 5, 6, 8-10), but the early stages of his scientific career are generally not emphasized. It so happens that, between 1942 and 1956, Jacques Monod published 16 articles in the Annales de l Institut Pasteur (3). His first publications in the Annales were not symbolic of his work, but they represent a decisive turning point in his intellectual pursuit which was to lead to the most prestigious recognition in the international scientific world

5 From the Sorbonne to the Institut Pasteur Monod, who obtained a science degree (licence) in Paris in 1931, was granted a scholarship so as to learn microbiological techniques at Strasbourg University (France), in the laboratory of Edouard Chatton, a specialist in protozoa. The following year he returned to Paris on a Commercy fellowship to join the Laboratoire d évolution des êtres organisés (Laboratory of evolution of living organisms), directed by his former professor at the Sorbonne, Maurice Caullery, and continued working with ciliates. Then, in 1934, he became an assistant in the laboratory of Zoology (Faculty of Sciences, Paris) directed by Charles Perez. It was to be his first paid permanent position. But the job did not suit him well-- he worked in a small dilapidated room, with poor facilities and little exchange with his colleagues. To get away from his dreary laboratory he joined Paul-Emile Victor in a scientific expedition to Greenland on the "Pourquoi pas? He then had the opportunity of learning genetics. He obtained a Rockefeller grant, in 1936 to work on eye pigmentation genes of Drosophila in the laboratory of Thomas H. Morgan at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena (Fig. 1). He discovered another way to perform research founded on collaborative work and critical and fruitful discussions. Back in France, he carried on research for a while at the Institute of Physicochemical Biology, where he continued to work on the model developed in USA. Having kept his position of assistant at the Sorbonne, Jacques Monod came back to work in the laboratory of Charles Perez in 1937, where he began his thesis on bacterial growth using Escherichia coli as a model system. This choice resulted form the influence of two men. As a student in zoology, it was during a training course in the Laboratory of Marine Biology in Roscoff (France) in 1929 that Jacques Monod met Georges Teissier for the first time. The latter was a specialist in biometrics, and oriented Jacques Monod s research towards the study of the kinetics of the growth of bacteria. It was also in Roscoff that Monod met André Lwoff. Lwoff, who was head of the Service of Microbial Physiology at the Institut Pasteur, was well known for his work on growth factors. He convinced Monod to give up the ciliate model for bacteria and provided him with a culture of E. coli. Thus, when he decided to begin his thesis, Monod had already acquired wide experience working in many laboratories. This propensity to move from one laboratory to another without settling in reflects the state of mind of Monod at the time, for he was also

6 tempted by a career in music, for which he was extremely gifted. Jacques Monod took his time, but finally chose to pursue his career in biological research. During the Second World War, Monod joined the French Resistance. His laboratory harbored a secretarial office for printing up anti-nazi pamphlets. Although his commitment considerably slowed down his scientific activities, he managed to finalize his thesis dissertation, which he defended in 1941 under the title " Recherches sur la croissance des cultures bactériennes". In his memoir published in 1942 (7) he reported on an unknown phenomenon which he termed diauxic growth to account for the fact that when bacteria are placed in a medium containing both glucose and lactose, growth is continuous until depletion of glucose; then, after a pause, growth resumes with the use of lactose. André Lwoff then pointed out to him that this phenomenon was certainly a particular example "of enzymatic adaptation". This work also led to a publication in the "Annales de l Institut Pasteur" in 1942 (6). Since he was being spied upon by the Gestapo due to his active role in the French Resistance, he left the Sorbonne and took refuge at the Institut Pasteur in André Lwoff's laboratory to study enzymatic adaptation. After the liberation, he engaged in the 1 st French Army of General de Lattre de Tassigny. He officially joined the Institut Pasteur as Head of a Laboratory in 1945, where he worked until his death in Publication in the "Annales" Under what circumstances did Monod choose to publish his work in the "Annales de l'institut Pasteur"? The "Association des Microbiologistes de Langue Française" (AMLF), which later became the French Society for Microbiology, was created in 1938 (2). Scientific reports presented in the format of research papers (i.e. including methods, tables and figures) were usually published in the "Annales". During the War, the AMLF had difficulty in organizing congresses, and the Institut Pasteur held monthly meetings on its premises. André Lwoff, who was an AMLF member, encouraged Monod to present his data. Until then, Jacques Monod's works had always been presented during formal sessions of the French Academy of Sciences. He thus discovered a more casual atmosphere and an audience which greatly appreciated the originality of his discoveries. This is how 10 of his contributions were published in the "Annales de l'institut Pasteur", including a paper with Elie Wollman (Table 1). The initial objective of the "Annales" was to publish research work performed in the

7 Institut Pasteur laboratories (both on the mainland and overseas) (3). It was thus within this framework that Jacques Monod published 6 other articles (Table 1). While Monod regularly contributed papers to the "Annales" between 1942 and 1947, only three papers were published in the journal thereafter (Table 1). The explanation for this is simple. French continued to be the main language of the "Annales" and Monod's work, highly specialized in genetics and molecular biology, addressed an international readership. He thus published in Anglo-Saxon journals. Two of those three papers published during the 1950s included results from projects funded by foreign institutions (Table 1: papers 14 and 16). Since the second one was also sponsored by a French institution, it was important to publish the results in a French journal. In the third article, Monod returned to the source of his works: bacterial growth. In that paper, Monod set out the theoretical and experimental bases of a method of continuous culture (Table 1: paper 15). It is understandable that this particular work was published in the Annales, since Monod had been teaching microbiology courses since The experimental possibilities offered by this new technique were to be widely used thereafter in French and foreign laboratories. After his death, several of his papers that had been published in the "Annales" were reproduced in a volume of selected papers edited by André Lwoff and Agnes Ullmann (4, Table 1), bearing witness to the importance of his contributions. He himself cited three of the papers published in the "Annales" (Table 1) in his Nobel Lecture (8). 4. Conclusion Jacques Monod's papers published in the " Annales de l'institut Pasteur " came just after his work on bacterial growth and were a continuation of his thesis. Since they were at the origin of the scientific work which led him to the Nobel Prize, they constitute pioneering research and are important in understanding the future orientation of his research, which was determinant for the continuation of his career: in particular, the discovery of the transcriptional regulation system, in which he analyzed control of genetic expression in the lac operon, in Escherichia coli and the theory of allosteric interactions (8). Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank Prof. Agnes Ullmann for critical reading of the manuscript.

8 References 1. Fantini, B. (1988) Pour une éthique de la connaissance / Jacques Monod. La Découverte (Histoire des sciences), Paris. 2. Grimont, P. (2008) A brief history of the French Society for Microbiology. Res. Microbiol. 159, Legout, S. (2008) The "Annales de l'institut Pasteur", : a glimpse into history. Res. Microbiol. 159, Lwoff, A., Ullmann, A. (1978) Selected papers in Molecular Biology by Jacques Monod. Academic Press. 5. Lwoff, A., Ullmann, A. (1979) Origins of molecular biology : a tribute to Jacques Monod. Academic Press. 6. (1942) Diauxie et respiration au cours de la croissance des cultures de B. coli. Ann. Inst. Pasteur 68, (1942) Recherche sur la croissance des cultures bactériennes (Thèse Doctorat ès Sciences Naturelles). Hermann, Paris. 8. (1966) From enzymatic adaptation to allosteric transitions, Nobel Lecture. Science 154, Morange, M. (1994) Histoire de la biologie moléculaire. La Découverte, Paris Debré, P. (1996) Jacques Monod. Flammarion, (Grandes biographies), Paris. 10. Ullmann, A. (2003) Origins of molecular biology: a tribute to Jacques Monod. ASM Press. Legend Fig. 1: Jacques Monod ( ) in Pasadena, California in 1936.

9 Table 1 Work of Jacques Monod published in the "Annales de l'institut Pasteur" Type Authors Title Year, volume, pages Influence de l'amide de l'acide (1942) 68, 435- nicotinique, de l'aneurine et de 438 l'acide ascorbique sur la croissance d'escherichia coli 1. AMLF report 7 May AMLF report 5 March 1942 Sur le phénomène de lyse lié à l'inanition carbonée 3. ALMF report Diauxie et respiration au cours de 2 July 1942 a la croissance des cultures de B. coli 4. AMLF report 4 February AMLF report 1 July AMLF report 1 July AMLF report 1 December 1943 a,b 8. AMLF report 2 December 1943 a 9. AMLF report 8 November Research paper a, b Morel. M.,, Audureau, A. Inflence de la concentration des substrats sur la rapidité d'adaptation chez le B. coli Sur la non-additivité d'action de certains enzymes bactériens Remarque sur le problème de la spécificité des enzymes bactériens Inhibition de l'adaptation enzymatique chez B. coli en présence de 2-4 dinitrophénol Sur la nature du phénomène de diauxie Sur l'utilisation du saccharose par Proteus vulgaris Mutation et adaptation enzymatique chez Escherichia coli-mutabile Sur une mutation spontanée 11. Research paper a affectant le pouvoir de synthèse de la méthoinine chez une bactérie coliforme 12. Research paper 13. AMLF report 3 April 1947 Lwoff, A., Monod J., Wollman, E. a Essai d'analys edu rôle de l'anhydride carbonique dans la croissance microbienne L'inhibition de la croissance et de l'adaptation enzymatique chez les bactéries infectées par le bacteriophage 14. Research paper a, c, Torriani, A. De l'amylomaltase d'escherichia coli 15. Research La technique de culture continue: paper a théorie et applications 16. Research Rickenberg, La galactoside-perméase a, b,d paper H., Cohen d'escherichia coli (1942) 68, (1942) 68, (1943) 69, (1944) 70, (1944) 70, (1944) 70, (1945) 71, (1946) 72, (1946) 72, (1946) 72, (1947) 73, (1947) 73, (1950) 78, (1950) 79, (1956) 91,

10 G., Buttin, G., AMLF: Association des Microbiologistes de Langue Française a Work reproduced in the selected papers (4) b Work cited in the Nobel lecture (8) c Work funded by the National Institute of Health d Work funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, Jane Coffin Child s Memorial Fund and the Commissariat à l Energie Atomique

11